I-94 Shrinkage: What is it and what can be done?

This post will explain (i) how people on temporary work visas (non-immigrants) end up with shortened I-94 admission records, (ii) why it is important, and (iii) what they can do about it.

This summer many people who have temporary work visa status will take time off and travel abroad and then return to the United States to continue working. When they return to the United States, they will receive a new I-94 admission record. The I-94 admission record and the I-94 expiration are extremely important.

If you are in the United States in a non-immigrant (temporary) work visa status, then your authorized stay is generally limited to the expiration of your I-94 record. So if your I-94 record states that your visa status is valid until December 1, 2023, then that date (December 1, 2023) is - as a general rule - how long you can stay in the United States.

Travel abroad and re-entering the United States will generally mean a person will get a new I-94. And that new I-94 could shorten (or shrink) the prior I-94 expiration date. And you might not even know it, unless you are pro-active and check!

• In recent years U.S. Customs has eliminated the “white card” I-94 record that historically was stapled into your passport to show your I-94 validity.

• Even more recently U.S. Customs has stopped stamping passports.

So, in summer 2023 (and beyond), when you enter the United States, you will not have anything ‘physical’ that shows your I-94 validity. Your I-94 record will be in the cloud.

While these changes to rely on digital records have resulted in less work for U.S. Customs officers at airports and potentially faster clearing of Customs at airports due to less paperwork, non-immigrants still face the possibility of mistakes being made. Every day U.S. Customs officers process many thousands of non-immigrants at airports and land crossings and in all those interactions invariably typos and other errors are made.

The treatment of I-94s is often seen as a basic formality, but it is an extremely important technicality in a system that worships technicalities. Not attending to your I-94 expiration could easily create existential problems to your ability to live and work in the United States, including qualification for a green card.

Separate from actual mistakes being made by U.S. Customs officers is the issue of I-94 admissions being limited to the validity of a passport. U.S. Customs is legally permitted to limit a non-immigrant admission to the expiration of a person’s passport. The limitation of I-94 validity to the expiration of a passport IS NOT A MISTAKE.

The limitation of I-94 validity to the expiration of your passport is an issue that has created headaches since the beginning of time, but now that all the records are digital, many non-immigrants don’t even know they are overstaying their authorized stay.

For all non-immigrants:

• It must become a habit to always check your I-94 after re-entering the United States to make sure you know what the system shows.

• To repeat: If you are a non-immigrant in the United States, you must absolutely know what your and your family’s I-94 expirations are. Check it here. Be sure!

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This post (after the paywall) will discuss some of the issues related to when a U.S. Customs officer ‘stops short’ your I-94 validity. Here is what you will find discussed after the paywall:

1. What is an I-94?

2. I-94 versus Visa?

3. I-94 at U.S. Customs versus I-94 at USCIS.

4. Classic case of H-1B worker who gets shortened I-94.

5. L Visas, including Blanket L Confusion.

6. E Visas: E1 and E2 are not the same (I would argue) as E3.

7. Age-outs (children turning 21).

8. Fixing Errors by US Customs. See here.

9. Solution: Quick Trip Abroad.

10. Solution: Extension Filing.

11. Nunc Pro Tunc (Please Forgive Me!)

12. I-485 Pending.